No Plans to Limit Women in Combat, General Says | Military.com: Despite rumors to the contrary, there's nothing in the works at the Defense Department to revise current rules opening combat roles to women who qualify, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn said Tuesday.
"There's been no conversation in the Pentagon about reviewing [or] revising the commitment that's been made to gender integration," Allyn said in testimony during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Allyn was responding to questions from Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, who said she had heard "rumblings that the [Trump] administration" with input from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford was "talking about reviewing, revising or appealing this policy" to have all military occupational specialties open to women.
Speier asked, "Do you know about any efforts to do that, and doesn't that kind of fly in the face of having the ready workforce we need if you're excluding women who are capable to engage in combat?"
Allyn, who spent much of his time at the hearing complaining that Army readiness is being affected by budget cuts, said the current state of readiness of all the services could not be maintained without having women able to fill roles that were previously closed to them.
